Personal Injury Attorneys - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and the Bronx

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) has a policy of suspending a taxi driver upon notification of the driver's arrest, without providing either a pre-deprivation hearing or a post-deprivation hearing that does more than confirm the fact of the driver's arrest that is no attempt is made to verify the propriety of the arrest or the guilt of the driver. Four (4) individual taxi drivers whose taxicab or for-hire vehicle licenses were suspended following an arrest on charges that were later dropped, and by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), a not-for-profit corporation that seeks to improve the working conditions of taxi drivers, safeguard their rights, and promote reform of the industry, unsuccessfully challenged the TLCs policy in Nnebe v. Daus, Slip Copy, 2009 WL 3151809 (S.D.N.Y. 2009), decided by Southern

Known as The Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law, bills have been introduced in the Assembly (A.7917) and the Senate (S.5292)establishing the offense of careless driving under a new section 1146-b to the Vehicle and Traffic Law (VTL), and imposing penalties when a violation results in the serious injury or death of a vulnerable user of a public way. The law defines careless driving as driving without due care or in a manner that endangers or would be likely to endanger any person or property. A vulnerable user is defined as a pedestrian, highway worker, person riding an animal, or person operating a farm tractor, skateboard, roller or inline skates, scooter or bicycle on a public way, crosswalk, or highway shoulder (new section 159-a of the VTL). Passage of the law is being heavily supported by civic organizations such as CHEKPEDS (Clinton Hells Kitchen coalition for Pedestrian Safety) and Transportation Alternativ

The first three months of 2009 saw 12 solid waste collection workers killed while on their routes, and 9 died during a 15-day period in March. This followed a substantial decrease in solid waste collection fatalities in 2007, during which there were 18 worker fatalities. That reflected a more than 50 percent decrease from the prior year. For years solid waste collection was among the five most dangerous occupations in the United States as measured by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the more dangerous practices involving garbage trucks include double-sided pick up and rushing since workers sometimes need to pick up 1,000 stops in eight hours. Not all fatalities and injuries, however, involve workers; members of the general public are also at risk. Just this past week, on May 26, two students at Farmingdale State College were struck by a reversing garbage truck owned by Jamaica A

Occupants of smaller cars are at increased risk in all kinds of crashes, not just ones with heavier vehicles, according to The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety. Almost half of all crash deaths in minicars occur in single-vehicle crashes. Even if all cars became smaller and lighter, the result would be to afford less occupant protection fleetwide in single-vehicle crashes. The death rate per million 1-3-year-old minis in single-vehicle crashes during 2007 was 35 compared with 11 per million for very large cars. Even in midsize cars, the death rate in single-vehicle crashes was 17 percent lower than in minicars. The addition of safety features, such as airbags, advanced belts, electronic stability control, and other features, to the smallest cars in recent years reduces injury risk, but they've been added to cars of all sizes. Thus the smallest cars still don't match the bigger cars in terms of occupant protection. The lower death rate in larger cars involved in s

21 percent of autopsies of New York City bicyclists who died within three hours of their accidents detected alcohol in the body, according to a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene study that examined fatal bicycling accidents in New York City from 1996 to 2005, as reported in The New York Times. 176 out of 225 bicyclists who died in fatal accidents during the 10-year time period were tested for alcohol. Because alcohol is metabolized with time, only 84 of those cases the bicyclist had died within three hours of the crash were considered to have valid tests. 18 of those (21%) showed signs of alcohol. On the drivers side of the equation, alcohol was detected in 6 percent of the drivers involved in bicycle crashes. Wearing a helmet can be a life saver. Head injuries contributed to three-quarters of bicycle deaths. Yet only 3 percent of the bicyclists who died were w

Homeowners have until June 1, 2009 to call 3-1-1 to request an inspection of their retaining walls by a Buildings Inspector without penalty of violation under the New York City Department of Buildings' annual No-Penalty Retaining Wall Inspection Program. Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri launched this years program on March 25, 2009. During the inspection, Building Inspectors will conduct visual examinations of retaining walls and record structural conditions such as bulging, displaced material, or leaning of the wall. If repair is needed or violating conditions that are not immediately unsafe are found on walls, the Buildings Department will defer issuing violations until June 1, 2009 to allow property owners time to take corrective action. If immediately-dangerous conditions are found upon inspection, the Buildings Department will take immediate action to force correction of the unsafe condition. Retaining walls are designed to hold back soil that would move

Dial 511 or visit www.511NY.org to find the most efficient route to take, avoiding accidents and congestion. 511 New York is a new travel-information service from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The 511 New York service incorporates real-time traffic alerts from the NYSDOTs TransAlert program, and the MTA, Thruway Authority and Port Authority of New York and New Jerseys traffic-alert programs. This information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 511 is the national three-digit phone number reserved for travel information. The phone service is an interactive voice system reachable by landline and cellular phones and driven by a users voice or phone keys. A personalized TransAlert subscription service provides notifications of major incidents and can be customized to give alerts by region and travel corridor. 511 NY is groundbreaking in bringi